Since its launch in 1997 Marriage Week has been celebrating the importance of marriage as the basis for family life. Timed to include St Valentine's Day (14th February), the Week started in Britain but has now been taken up by many countries, including the USA and Switzerland. (There is a Swiss website, www.marriageweek.ch)
Marriage remains incredibly popular. In Switzerland the annual number of marriages has increased from 38,700 to 41,500 during the past ten years. Over 90 percent of young people in Britain hope to be married at some point in the future. Even in these days, two out of every three first marriages are still "until death do us part".
Marriage is good for us for a variety of reasons. Statistics suggest that married people are healthier and live longer. And there are financial advantages too in some countries, including Switzerland. (In Britain, perversely, you can lose tax allowances and social security benefits if you are married. Church organisations like the Mothers' Union are lobbying to change this.)
But, as Christians, we believe marriage is good for another reason. The Marriage Service in the Book of Common Prayer tells us "Matrimony...is an honourable estate, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church". What these old-fashioned words are saying is that the relationship we call marriage is an illustration of the love God shows to his people. He loves us "for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health". That is why Christian marriage is a sacrament, not just a legal arrangement.
This year, St Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday and we shall be marking the occasion at St Ursula's by celebrating marriage at our 10.00 Eucharist. It is to be a service for everyone, married or not. You will have the opportunity to give thanks for a marriage that is important to you (your own, your parents' or your children's perhaps). As well as giving thanks, we can pray for people whose marriages are in difficulties and for those who have experienced sadness in their marriage. We will also want to pray for engaged couples and the support and guidance the Church gives them as they prepare for marriage.
You are invited...why not enter into the occasion and wear a flower in your buttonhole?
Peter